I am starting to think that these three barrel aged beers really are worth picking up. I saw the price tags and have been reluctant based on Almanac's previous offerings, but it appears these three latest releases really are a step up in quality.

I have been somewhat disappointed with all of the previous offerings (including the chocolate and pale ale you mentioned)

Hard to say. I thought each was really good, though definitely different.

I'd probably say try the #1 if you're only going to go for one of them.

What I really liked about #2 is something I've been missing in RR's Temptation for many years. When Temptation was first made it was aged in Chardonnay barrels and I really liked the additional flavor that came from the wine. #2 has that same flavor which Temptation no longer does.

Thanks. I grabbed a Sucaba at Whole Foods on Haight. I was just at Healthy Spirits on Clement and didn't see it but I'll look again. I did talk the wife into picking up one of the last Logsdon Peche and Bretts they had today. Looking forward to trying that one.

I tried the Barrel Noir over the weekend, and I found it pretty good, although not too novel. I wasn't sure if it's intended to have some Belgian character from the '50% dark ale', but it mostly reminded me of barrel-aged Old Rasputin (i.e., tasted like a BA RIS)---thick, sweet, dark roast, chocolate with woody bourbon flavours.

I didn't pick up any acetaldehyde---which I'm glad of, since it wouldn't have fit in---even though I had seen your note and was expecting to. Do you think your bottle was oxidised? Or was that intentional (and I totally missed it!)?

It's quite good. The tartness is nicely pronounced, but the wine barrel and/or the fruits it's brewed with give it a pleasant suppleness and make it more interesting than just the sourness alone would do. Not taking anything away from Sanctification, but it's nice to have something complementing the bacteria. I didn't pick up on the ginger, which would have been neat, but it didn't feel like anything was missing.

I was able to taste the #2, #3, and #4 on tap last week at The Library Alehouse in Santa Monica. Almanac had had a tap takeover there on Wednesday night, and I went in and tried a flight on Thursday.

#2 had a good balance, and I found the fruit to be the least identifiable of the three. Low carbonation. I'm always looking for good sours to use when introducing friends to sours, and this seems like it would work for that purpose.

#3 was very fruit forward, with the fresh strawberry scent and flavor jumping out of the glass. I wonder what would happen with this beer with time -- and whether it would go toward the awesome rotten strawberry funk that you get in The Bruery's Ichigo Highway. Overall, this was a refreshing, drinkable beer but I think I prefer #1 and #2 better.

#4 was very lemon forward, with the same sort of freshness I was getting in #3. This would be a great food beer, as the acid would help elevate some foods.

All three beers were relatively low carbonation, but that wasn't a huge surprise to me.

I would love to get my hands on a couple of bottles of all 4 of these beers and see what they do over time ... but at this point, I would hunt down 1 & 2 over 3 & 4. All super interesting and fun to taste, for sure.

I also had a small taste of the single hop Chinook IPA. I tend to find single hops more an interesting academic exercise than a super enjoyable glass to drink. They're great for teaching your palate what particular hops taste like, but I found the balance to be pretty in-my-face with the hops and bitterness. I would have liked something to help round it out a bit.

"Farm to Barrel" sort of leaves out the "detour" that the barley needs to make between the field and the brewery - the maltster. No mention if they're malting themselves or what malting company they are using.

I believe they only use the "Farm to" names when the beers are made in collaboration with local ingredient sources for the ingredients added to the beer. All their beers don't have that labeling, the ones that do involve special flavorings like cacao nibs, oranges, etc.